Review by Steve Bennett

This is a real ‘sprit of the Fringe’ idea: quirky, original and financially unviable, but offering an experience you couldn’t find anywhere else.

Newish stand-up Jamie Douglas has written a 15-minute script around the Battle Of Britain, which he performs four times a day from an office tucked away inside the Pleasance.

It’s then webcast to computers across the internet, including one in the specially-constructed two-seater bunker, a tiny camouflaged hut decked out with dishes and antennae in the venue’s courtyard.

You can watch it live online (click here for the link), but huddling up into this darkened hut, away from the hubbub outside, is a great escape. But you may have to book early, with a capacity of two – and tickets at just £2.50 – it’s always a sell-out.

What you see is not just Douglas, in the guise of Flight Lieutenant Ginger Douglas, delivering the tale to a static camera. Instead the image has been craftily superimposed into the cockpit of a Flash-animated Spitfire, as it engages in dogfights over the fields of Southern England.

Naturally, it’s a top-hole tale of chocks-away, back for tea and crumpets, derring-do as our good egg valiantly fights to win not just the battle, but the affections of his sweetheart Kitty Flanders against a romantic rival.

It’s all jolly fun, with a smattering of decent jokes and ideas that mean the short narrative doesn’t unfold as you might expect. The animation, by Jo Miller, often brings a smile to the face – and there’s even a rousing score to get you in the patriotic mood.

That Spitfire Electronique turns out to be worth watching is something of a bonus, given that it’s the gimmick that will attract a curious audience. And what a great idea for a comic without an hour-long show to get to the Fringe with something a lot more special than sharing the bill of a composite stand-up show. Inventiveness like this can only be a good omen for the future.

Come for the novelty, stay for the jokes - if only for 15 minutes.

Review date: 1 Jan 2005
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett